not to forget the court this past term also decided an affirmative action case from the university of texas, in which affirmative action survived by a hair. i am persuaded that by that the decision the supreme court is setting up the law to strike down racial diversity as a compelling justification for race conscious affirmative action programs. but taken together i think we can say three things about each of those events or images, each of which offers us an approach on to the state of black politics in the united states today. about that supreme court decision in his opinion for the court, the chief justice, justice roberts says it's something that i do not think could have been set 50 years ago and would not have been set 50 years ago by a member of the u.s. supreme court. there is a moment in the opinion in which he frankly admits that racial discrimination in american life, particularly here in the voting excess and goes on to say no one denies that. yet by the end of the opinion, what he has given us is a legal judgment, the reading of the constitution, which effectively says racial d